1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods for depositing and retrieving mail into and from a mailing receptacle. More particularly, the present invention relates to equipment and procedures associated with the mailing process whereby handling mail is done in a secure method in order to guard against potential biohazards in contaminated mail.
2. Description of the Related Art
The United States Postal Service provides mail collection boxes in a multitude of public locations where members of the public may deposit mail items. Indeed this is true throughout the world; national postal authorities make public mailing receptacles open to the public. One of the chief design criteria for the public mailbox has been easy access and usability by the public.
Mail is also deposited and collected in numerous other facilities beyond the traditional mailbox. Mailing locations and facilities include building mail chutes and mail receptacles found in building lobbies, delivery company lobbies, pack and send lobbies, and also post office lobbies.
In addition, the postal carriers and individuals who access mail facilities and depositories typically do so in a hurried manner with little if any thought to potential hazards that may wait inside them. Thus the public mailbox makes an inviting target for those bent on anonymous and antisocial behavior.
Mail receptacles have occasionally been the targets of pranks and vandalism. Recently there was a spate of more serious incidents involving contaminated mail. It is believed that mail was deposited and delivered through typical mail channels where the mailpieces had been deliberately contaminated with biological hazard material. Investigation has confirmed that some mailpieces deposited in mailboxes were contaminated with anthrax spores. Some members of the postal service, as a result of their handling contaminated mail, suffered exposure to the biological materials.
It is known that biological threats could be introduced in the collection mailboxes or other receptacles for items being placed in the hands of a delivery company for delivery to some other entity. Such threats could also be introduced via the mail chutes located in office building lobbies. Presently there are no preventing mechanisms for the delivery companies or the Postal Service to use to protect employees who collect and process the items for delivery and/or to protect the addressees or other recipients of the delivery items. There are no present methods available for someone handling the mail and other delivery items to identify and to protect against the threat.
In response to the threat posed by these incidents, procedures have been developed to treat mail that is believed to be contaminated with biohazard or infectious materials. Decontamination methods have been developed that will render contaminated mail safe or harmless. Decontamination technologies may rely on some form of irradiation to kill the biological materials such as microbes after mail has been collected and handled by employees. Other ideas involve using a form of chamber gas treatment for collection mail volumes and other delivery items in volume. These approaches will ultimately kill the microbes. To provided the initial protection to the carrier retrieving the collection mail, ideas include the use of liners within collection mail boxes and other receptacles for delivery items as mailbags to protect the individual handling the delivery items from physically touching them. However, application of these decontamination methods typically requires that suspected mail be transported from a collection location to a decontamination site. Thus, even with present decontamination procedures, there exists a risk of exposure to harmful agents within the mail while the mail is in transport to the decontamination site. Thus, there is a need to develop equipment and methods to minimize the chance of infection or exposure to biohazard material in the mail during the period between mail collection and decontamination.
The present mailbox design provides little protection against the threat posed from biohazards in contaminated mail. Accordingly, there is a need to improve the mailbox design. In addition, there is a need to develop practices and methods whereby letter carriers may perform their duties in a safe and secure manner.
It would be desirable to provide a means whereby contaminated mail in a mailbox can be collected with minimal risk of human exposure to infectious material potentially found in the mail.
It would also be desirable to retrofit the existing mailbox design such that mailboxes need not be replaced in their entirety. It would be advantageous to provide a means for secure handling of mail that can be applied to the mailbox design that is now in use.
It would also be desirable to provide a method to improve security in postal collection that can be enacted quickly and easily.
It would also be desirable to develop a collection mailbag of high quality that allows decontamination procedures to take place within the mailbag itself.